'When the Devil Whispers', a gripping psychological crime thriller by first time author Ajinkya Bhasme was launched in Mumbai.

Based on real life events, the book was launched in the presence of Sushant Divigkar, winner of Mr. Gay India 2014, psychologist, former columnist at DNA, actor and prominent voice of the LGBTQ community in India.

An IIT Bombay graduate, Ajinkya is a Human Resource Manager by day and author by night.

He wrote his first novel called "Boo in the Well of Dangers" when he was 11 years of age which was a children's fantasy fiction about a friendly ghost and his quest to save the world.

"When the Devil Whispers" is broadly inspired by true events of arguably India's most horrific crime ever committed by a group of women who became the first Indian women sentenced to be hanged to death.

Sushant Divgikar articulated, "Petrifying, that was the feeling throughout the book. The end left me breathless."

The book is a complex mix of crime thriller and psychological horror with each page gripping as the last. The book is available on the following online platforms.

Synopsis of the book:

When the Devil Whispers Synopsis

"To err is human; to forgive, divine." And then there are some crimes that are so harrowing and cold-blooded, that the devil himself gets terrified to walk alone in the dark.

The novel is a crime thriller and a psychological horror which takes the reader on a mysterious ride full of twists and turns. The story is loosely inspired by true events of arguably India's most horrific crime ever committed by a group of women who became the first Indian women sentenced to be hanged to death.

The plot revolves around a mysterious kidnapping of a young girl named Shalini and the murder of an unidentified headless body. Under a great façade of the central characters, very quickly, in the story, the readers are exposed to the underlying mass murder and kidnapping of children aged between 6 months and 12 years, by the same criminals who are responsible for the kidnapping of Shalini. In the series of this mass murder, Shalini fails to fit in the profile of the usual victims and a mist of mystery surrounds the reason for her kidnapping.

The story approaches in multiple time segments and parallel happenings as a violent anxiety patient Alka (Shalini's mother) is set on a journey to find her daughter and husband who is allegedly dead. Alka is the one who informs the police about her missing daughter and murdered husband but ends up being a prime suspect as she throws off the investigation by lying continuously to the police. All characters in the book are entwined in the murder plot with several disbeliefs to ultimately reach the mastermind behind the crimes. In a quest to identify the headless body and to find the where abouts of Shalini, the police uncovers various insidious layers underneath the cover of the face case whose roots seep decades before the crime has even taken place. The several character stories narrate their personality traits and their actions through psychological turbulence, guilt ridden conscious and a struggle to survive the wrath of one sinister woman who is capable of scaring even the devil himself.

The climactic point in the book is when one of the kidnappers starts getting auditory and visual hallucinations of all the children that he has murdered. But one of the victims in particular, a 2-year-old girl, Gauri, haunts him to the brim of sanity. He starts getting psychologically affected and spends days without sleeping. His insomnia drives him mad to an extent where his phantasms become his reality and he acts unexpectedly. The book takes a sharp turn and paces up suddenly, leaving the reader gasping for air between words.

In the finale of the story, it is brought to light that over a period of roughly 5 years, the group has kidnapped and brutally murdered more than 17 children for personal benefits and Shalini is a victim of a cold-blooded revenge plot.

The entire justice system of India upheld the decision of capital punishment for the sinister women, including a recent denial of mercy petition by the then-President making them India's first women to be hanged to death.

The book ends in the following original quote - At times like these, when the world is at a loss and has been stripped of humanity, one may challenge the very existence of God. And if one must believe in Him, then He might as well be the most insidious force that humans will ever encounter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)